My Story: Chennai Flood Brought Me Back My Daughter’s Lost Purse And A Faith In Humanity

My daughter was home for the holidays and was about to fly back the next day to Pune, where she is a student.

In the evening of November 20/2015, I got a call from her. She was distraught and in tears, she informed me that her handbag had been snatched by two young men on a motorbike while she was traveling back home in an auto. I immediately blocked her debit card and informed the police who asked me to rush to the police station to file a report. My daughter and I travelled back in the same auto and filed a report that night. She had lost some cash, but what worried her more, was the fact that she had lost all her identity cards, like student ID, her original drivers license and debit card.

The police gave us a community service register report and told us that we would have to come back for a letter from the Chennai police commissioner’s office, which would help us get a duplicate driver’s license.

My daughter flew back to Pune and the following week the great floods came due to heavy rainfall and a failed drainage system, Chennai was in chaos.

Everyone’s lives were thrown out of gear. The following week, I was called to collect the letter from the office of the Police Commissioner, which I did.

I reconciled myself to the fact that the bag must have been dumped somewhere, shorn of its contents.

Then on November 28, I barely finished my Puja when I got three subsequent missed calls from an unknown number.

I called the number and a male responded. He asked for my daughter and told me that he had found her bag in the aftermath of the floods more than a month ago, caught in the muck and slush of the Cooum river at Chintadripet. He told me that the bag was badly damaged and all that he found inside was a plastic cover with all the identity and debit cards inside. They were not damaged, and he had retrieved my number from one of the cards. I was, at first, sceptical and he must have sensed it for he told me that his name was Anbuvel and asked me to visit his FB page. He told me that he lived in the slums on the banks of the river. It was finally decided that he would drop off the cards at the Chintadripet police station.

I rushed that very evening got back all the cards. I thanked him profusely and wanted to reward him for his good deed. I asked him for his bank account number. After many requests, he sent it to me and I transferred the funds. Meanwhile, I had checked out his FB account and found that he was a young man and a father of a little girl.

He called me the next day and thanked me for the funds. He told me that he had donated the funds that I gave, to a trust run by his bank manager and had mentioned me as the donor. Shocked, I asked him why he could not have kept that for his little daughter.He replied that, if he took any money for this deed it would amount to wages, and would nullify whatever he had done. He said that he was content with the Rs. 200 – Rs. 300, that he earns everyday and was only answerable to God. I was left speechless.

He replied that, if he took any money for this deed it would amount to wages, and would nullify whatever he had done. He said that he was content with the Rs. 200 – Rs. 300, that he earns everyday and was only answerable to God. I was left speechless.

Submitted By: Nandini Balasubramanium

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Partner Story

Be A True Ally To The Women In Your Life #ShareTheLoad

Women empowerment is one of the most important words of the present times. It is not a mere phrase but it rather represents a movement, which has been pending for the longest time. However, many have a misconception that educating women, “letting” them work, etc. is all that women empowerment is all about. However, the concept of women empowerment is more of an umbrella term. It intends to involve society as a whole, including men.

We always encourage and applaud a woman who successfully balances both work life and her household. But won’t it be easy for that woman if the load of the work is shared? We see that in our society a woman’s primary role is seen as that of a homemaker. At the same time, her personal likes, aspirations, and dreams are forced to be put on the backburner because of the undue expectation that she has to single handedly manage the household while balancing her career. To give credit where it is due, the times are changing. Men and women of the house are increasingly sharing the workload. However, one can also not turn a blind to the fact that a lot more still needs to be done.

Driving home the same concept, popular brand Ariel has come up with brilliant communication.

The video shows a mother speaking to her married daughter over the phone, all whilst cleaning the mess her son has created. She is absolutely heartbroken when her daughter says that she plans to quit her job since juggling both a demanding job and her household has become too overwhelming. It is during this time that she realises that while she and her husband as parents left no stone unturned to give an all-round upbringing to their daughter, they somewhere forgot to teach their son some basic life skills like cooking and doing laundry so that they grow out to be equally responsible in doing household chores. This is not a story of just one family, but of families across the country. These are some things which everyone must know, not for any other reason, but simply because these are basic tasks which are absolutely essential to survive. And, they make you capable to be equal partners tomorrow!

As Ariel raises an important question-is household work only a woman’s job? We need to ask ourselves the same question. A recent study revealed that the unpaid work done by women around the world amounted to 43 times the annual turnover of Apple Inc. It is high time we share the load and change the narrative that household work is the “duty” of a woman. As the video shows, contributing to the household work is not only a daughter’s work, but the son must contribute his bit too. It is also important for the parents to instil a sense of responsibility in their children, irrespective of their gender so that at any juncture of their lives, they are not completely dependent on another person for basic tasks like these. Ariel has been consistently driving this message and addressing the inequality within households since 2015. The Logical Indian applauds Ariel for coming up with such a brilliant video for depicting such an important concept.